Yachties are set for smoother sailing now that a Waikato-based electricity company has come to the rescue and buried dangerous overhead power lines around their Lorenzen Bay clubhouse.
“It was a constant worry,” says Raglan Sailing Club committee member Ross Henderson who wrote to WEL Networks recently, alerting it to the threat under which the club operated.
He pointed out they were continually trying to avoid contact between aluminium masts and overhead power lines in the marine reserve area.
“We were struggling to operate safely,” Ross told the Chronicle. “We had to have a safety person focused on managing the danger every club day or event, and we were weighing up whether to continue to operate.”
As soon as WEL came out to assess the situation and saw the obvious risk it didn’t hesitate to get the job done, says Ross.
The club never knew at the time just how big the task to underground the powerlines was, he adds. The project’s costs could have been in the order of $100,000 and “no way on God’s earth could we afford to do it”.
There were both private properties and a marine reserve area to be considered, he explains, in a project involving directional drilling under the estuary. This required various consents and approvals as well as detailed environmental reporting.
The club’s now delighted at the results of the completed project, not least of which means its new Quest sailboat – among others with taller high-performance rigs – can get safely in and out of the water.
“We’ve always been about safety,” Ross insists.
Local yachties formed the sailing club 12 years ago after finding their “flagship” Coast Guard cutter – once stored in the Scout Hall shed in Cliff St – was in danger of being carted off to a Hamilton club.
Since then the club’s accumulated a fleet of more than 20 boats including old Optimists for the young ones, newer open-backed skiffs, and Lasers. It also has a chase boat for safety although, Ross says, there’s a need for one with a more reliable outboard motor.
He describes the assistance from all parties in the project as phenomenal, thanking WEL Networks for coming to the party, Bayonne Construction for the directional drilling and Tuatahi First Fibre for installing the optical cables.
His thanks also go to ward councillor Lisa Thomson, Tainui hapu and Ngati Mahanga for ongoing support. “It makes me proud to be a part of this community,” he adds.
